Dreamweaver.MX.1002004.The.Missing.Manual [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

20.2 Dreamweaver Extensions

While keyboard shortcuts provide an easy way to access frequently used commands,
they're not much help if the command you want doesn't exist. Suppose, for example,
that you use the Validate Form behavior to make sure visitors to your site properly fill
out your forms (see Section 19.3.5). However, you wish that in addition to just checking
for an email address or number, that it could check for phone numbers, Zip codes,
and social security numbers. What's a Web designer to do? You could dash off a quick
email to
extensions, to Dreamweaver by downloading the work of all of those programmers. A
Dreamweaver extension can take many forms and work in a variety of ways to change
the way the program works. It can be an icon on the Insert bar, a behavior listed on
the Behaviors panel, or a command in the Commands menu. It might even be an
entirely new floating window, like the Property inspector, that you use to alter some
aspect of your page.

Best of all, whereas programming ability may be required to create extensions, none
at all is necessary to use them. You can download hundreds of extensions from the
Web and install them on your computer for free. In addition, many sophisticated
extensions, like those for creating ecommerce sites, are commercially available.

NOTE

Extensions have been around for many versions of Dreamweaver. Unfortunately, each version of
Dreamweaver added a few kinks for extension developers, so not all extensions out there work with Dreamweaver
MX 2004. (Many extensions that were compatible with Dreamweaver MX do work with MX 2004.)
Most extension developers list which versions of Dreamweaver their extensions work with, and you can also
check for version compatibility on the Dreamweaver Exchange (see Figure 20-2).

20.2.1 Browse the Exchange

The largest collection of extensions waits at the Macromedia Exchange Web site. Here,
you'll find hundreds of free and commercial extensions. Although some come from
Macromedia itself, the vast majority are written by an army of talented Dreamweaver
users.

Using the Exchange is a straightforward process.

In your Web browser, go to
www.macromedia.com/exchange/dreamweaver/
.

You can also get there from within Dreamweaver by choosing CommandsGet
More Commands.

Log in (see Figure 20-2).

You can browse the site without logging in, but to download any of the extensions,
you need get a Macromedia ID and sign in, using the Exchange Sign In form.

You can peruse the Exchange freely,
check out the offerings, and even buy
commercial third-party extensions.
However, if you want to download one
of the free extensions, you must get a
Macromedia ID and log into the site.
Unfortunately, the marketing machine
must be appeased, so you'll need to
provide personal information and face
a (fortunately optional) survey of your
Web development habits.

Browse the extensions.

Once you've logged on to the site, the home page highlights new and popular extensions.
Overall, however, you may find the Exchange site can be confusing and
difficult to use. (For example, the entire site is in Flash, so Mac users can't even
use their browser's Back button to travel back to earlier screens.)

Near the top of each page, you'll see a pop-up menu that lists different categories
of extensions: Accessibility, DHTML/layers, Navigation, Productivity, Flash media,
Scripting, Tables, Text, eCommerce, and so on. When you choose a category, you
go to a page listing all of the extensions within that category (see Figure 20-2).

If you're looking for a particular extension, the Search command is your best bet.
Click the Search Exchanges button (see Figure 20-2). On the Search page, type the
extension's name, or a few descriptive words, into the Search Extensions field, select
Dreamweaver Exchange from the exchange menu (Macromedia has exchanges for
several products, including Flash and Cold Fusion) and then click Search.

Click an extension's name to go to its Web page.

On an extension's page, you'll find a description of it, a button to either purchase
or download, and buttons to add the extension to Favorites and Alerts lists. The
Favorites option lets you create a personal list of the extensions you've found to be
the best; the Alerts list feature means you'll receive an email whenever the extension
is updated (see Figure 20-3).

Each extension has its
own page in Macromedia
Exchange that provides
information about the extension
and its developer.
A helpful voting mechanism
(1 - 5 stars) lets you
know what other people
think of the extension.

20.2.2 Find a Good Extension

How do you figure out which extensions are worth checking out? First, you can find
some recommendations of the best ones scattered through this book in special sidebars
labeled Extension Alert (see Section 11.4 and Section 13.1.2.4, for example).

The Exchange also provides information to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
Macromedia tests each new extension before posting it. Extensions that pass a basic set
of testsit installs OK, it works, it doesn't blow up your computerare given a Basic
approval rating. Some extensions also pass a more rigorous test that determines if the
extension works in a way that's "Dreamweaver-like." In other words, these extensions are designed to look, feel, and act like the program, so that you won't need to learn a
new interface. These extensions get a Macromedia Approved rating, indicated by the
word Macromedia in the approval section of an extension's details page.

Of course, these approval ratings only let you know if an extension works; they don't
tell you that it's useful. As an extra aid, Dreamweaver aficionados (including you) can
rate each extension on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best). An extension's average rating
gives you a good indication of how handy it is. When you're browsing the Exchange,
look for the column labeled with a star to the right (see Figure 20-2). Click the header
to organize the extensions from most- to least-recommended.

If you ever need some destructive criticism, download the Dreamweaver Assistant
extension. The "assistant," a cigarette-smoking pushpin with a goatee and an
attitude (and a stinging spoof of Clippy the Moronic Paper Clip in Microsoft Office
for Windows), will gently comment on your site, ask for a beer, and make time with
a paper clip. You'll find this amusing waste of time in, ironically, the Productivity
category of the Exchange.

20.2.3 Other Extension Sources

Unfortunately, the glory days of totally free extensions are over. You can still find
plenty of extensions offered free of charge, but many developers have realized they
can't survive by giving away their work. The upside is that there are more excellent,
polished, well-documented commercial extensions than evermany even with customer
support. Here are a few highlights:

The DMXZone (
www.dmxzone.com
) has a large selection of free and commercial
extensions, including a collection of extensions for PHP, ASP, and ASP.NET that
let you add file-uploading features to your site.

Project Seven (
www.projectseven.com/extensions/
) offers free extensions and several
excellent commercial extensions for creating animated Dynamic HTML menus,
scrolling text areas, and more.

Although it hasn't been updated in a while, Basic UltraDev (
www.basic-ultradev.com/extensions/
) has a large collection of extensions mostly aimed at the dynamic,
database-driven sites described in Part VI.

The Dreamweaver Team Web site (
www.dwteam.com/Extensions/
), which includes
some extensions from the Basic UltraDev guys, is a great source for extensions,
including one of the simplest and greatest timesavers, the QuickLink extension.

Dreamweaver FAQ.com (
www.dwfaq.com
) offers client-side extensions for cool
JavaScript effects and server-side extensions, including a shopping-cart system for
Cold Fusion.

If PHP (see Section 21.2.1.5) is your bag, then you'll find an impressive collection of
extensions at Felix One (
www.felixone.it/extensions/dwextensionsen.asp
).

And if Dreamweaver's PHP/MySQL tools don't cut the mustard, you can turn to
the well-respected Romanian development company InterAKT (
www.interakt.ro
). This company sells a powerful extension set that replaces Dreamweaver's PHP
tools for creating dynamic Web sites.

20.2.4 Download and Install Extensions

Once you've found a great extension, download it to your computer. You can save
the resulting downloaded file anywhere on your computer, but the Dreamweaver MX
2004Downloaded Extensions folder is a logical place.

A downloaded extension file's name ends with .mxp, which stands for Macromedia
Exchange Package. That's a special file format that works with the Extension
Managerthe program, described next, that actually installs the extension into
Dreamweaver.

20.2.4.1 The Extension Manager

To add and remove a Dreamweaver extension, you use the Extension Manager, a
stand-alone program that's integrated with Dreamweaver. It's designed to manage
extensions for many Macromedia programs (not just Dreamweaver): you can install
extensions, turn them on and off, and remove them. This feature can be quite handy
if you also use Macromedia's Flash or Director programs; you have a single access
point for managing all your extensions.

You can launch the Extension Manager from within Dreamweaver by choosing Commands
Manage Extensions (see Figure 20-5).

To add an extension:

Download an extension package (.mxp file) from the Exchange.

See instructions in Section 20.2.

From Dreamweaver, choose CommandsManage Extensions.

The Extension Manager launches. It lists all currently installed extensions (see
Figure 20-5).

Choose Dreamweaver MX 2004 from the pop-up menu.

Since the Extension Manager handles extensions for several different programs,
you need to specify which program you're using. Of course, if you don't have any
other Macromedia products installed on your machine, Dreamweaver MX 2004
is the only option.

Choose FileInstall Extension.

If you're using Windows, you can also click the Install Extension button. The Select
Extension window appears, listing the folders on your hard drive.

Navigate to and select the extension package (.mxp file) you wish to add.

A disclaimer appears with a lot of legal text. In brief, it holds Macromedia free of
liability if your computer melts as a result of installing the extension.

Click Accept in the Disclaimer window.

A message may appear that asks you to quit and restart Dreamweaver. If so, follow
the directions.

You can also install an extension simply by double-clicking the .mxp file after you download it, which saves you a few steps.

The Extension Manager window lists each extension
you've installed along with its version number,
type, and author. If you select an extension from
the list, a description displays in the bottom half of
the window. The Windows and Macintosh versions
differ slightly: the Windows version (top) includes
four buttons for easy access to common tasks; the
same functions can be accessed on the Mac (bottom)
from the File and Help menus.

To remove an extension, select it from the list and choose FileRemove Extension
(or, in Windows, click the Trash can button).

If you install a lot of extensions, Dreamweaver may take longer than usual to load. It needs to process every extension file as it opens. If you want to temporarily turn off an extension (as opposed to deleting it), open the Extension Manager and turn off the box next to the extension's name. To turn it back on again, simply turn on the box again. You may need to restart Dreamweaver to make the extension available again.

If you had downloaded and installed a bunch of extensions back when you used
Dreamweaver MX, you can import them into Dreamweaver MX 2004 by choosing
FileImport Extensions. Select Dreamweaver MX from the menu and click OK;
Dreamweaver MX 2004 will copy all installed extensions from Dreamweaver 4. (Again,
not all Dreamweaver MX extensions work in MX 2004. Use this option with care.)

20.2.5 Make Your Own Extensions

The Exchange is a great resource for finding useful extensions. But what if you can't
find the extension you need? Create your own.

Writing extensions involves in-depth knowledge of JavaScript and HTML. But when
you create a command that lets you complete a weekly task in a fraction of the time
it took before, the effort may just be worth it. For more information, the Extensions
menu available from the Help menu provides three electronic references that can
help. The Macromedia Web site also offers help at the Dreamweaver support center:

www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/extendl
.